Paul's Spanish 2018 - Still Meandering Toward Fluency

[PaleoPaul]

I thought I would start a language log here to document my progress on my goal of achieving B2/C1 level fluency in Spanish. I had previously created a log called Fluent By 50 but as a result of my inconsistency I think that title may not be appropriate anymore. I only have 542 days left until my 50th birthday.

Anyway, to focus on what I hope to do this year...

1 - Italki lessons - I have found a teacher I like and have scheduled out weekly lessons for the next few months.
2 - Reading - I am reading every day for a minimum of 15-20 minutes. I am currently reading Charlie y la Fabrica de Chocolate. I am reading intensively (which I think means I look up words I don't know).
3 - Writing - I plan to submit something to Italki twice a week. Something. Anything.
4 - Vocab - As a result of my intensive reading (see above) I am generating a list of words I don't know. I am culling this down to a list of useful words I don't know and adding these to a Memrise course I created for myself (which was super easy). My goal is 50 new words per week. Basically, as I read my book during the week I make notes of words I want to learn in a notebook. Then on Sunday evenings I add all of these words to my Memrise course and then spend the week learning those words.
5 - Grammar - In addition to my weekly lesson, my goal is to work through 1 chapter per week in my Practice Makes Perfect Complete Spanish Grammar book.
6 - Conversation - Again, in addition to my weekly lesson, I plan on setting up at least two regular language exchange sessions per week. Since I am a bit shy and nervous of my Spanish language skills, this will probably be the hardest goal to achieve.
7 - Misc - I keep my truck radio tuned to a Spanish language channel so I'm getting at least 30 minutes per day exposure to spoken Spanish. I'm also trying to squeeze in some Spanish language TV/movies. Last weekend I watched half of the movie "Eva". I also participate in a Spanish/English WhatsApp group.

[PaleoPaul]

This post will be a list of the books I have read this year.

Charlie y la Fabrica de Chocolate (started 1/1/18)
El Alquimista - Los secretos del inmortal Nicholas Flamel libro uno (started 1/13/18)

[PaleoPaul]

Week 1 Progress

1 - Next Italki lesson is not scheduled until 1/20/18.
2 - I have done pretty well with my reading. I missed one day but got more than 20 minutes on all the other days.
3 - I wrote a series of practice sentences using one day's worth of new words. I'd really like to do this with each of my 50 new words each week.
4 - I was able to learn 50 new words this week an also to collect and enter in to Memrise 50 more words for this week. I feel like this worked really well.
5 - Did not get to do any grammar work.
6 - Conversation. Hmmm. No progress. Well, I did discuss setting up a weekly cambio with one of my WhatsApp friends. But didn't actually schedule anything.
7 - Lots of Spanish news radio.

[PaleoPaul]

Breakthrough day yesterday with my reading. I have been reading at least 15 minutes per day since New Year's, sometimes getting 30-45 minutes when my schedule allowed. I have been enjoying it but not loving it. Being the super nerd that I am, I have been tracking how quickly I am reading for each chapter. I averaged about 5 or 6 minutes per page when I started 2 weeks ago.
Yesterday we had a pretty good snowstorm here so at work it was pretty quiet and I was able to get an hour of reading in there. Then yesterday evening I sat on the couch and read for three more hours! And I really enjoyed it! I felt like I was flying through the chapters and sure enough the statistics bear that out. My average speed is now around 2.5 - 3 minutes per page! I usually get a chapter or two per day - yesterday I read 9! I only have 3 chapters left in my first book of the year and I am determined to get those done today.

Cheers!
Paul

[PaleoPaul]

Week 2 Progress

1 - Still awaiting my lesson next Saturday. I do think I am going to find a new Italki tutor. My current one is super nice and patient but only has one time slot available on Saturdays and I think I am in competition with another person for that slot.
2 - Reading has been awesome this week! I have really noticed improvement as a result of actually doing some reading. Imagine that. My log indicates I spent 10.5 hours reading this week, including over 4 hours on Friday alone. Not expecting to get as much this week but hoping for at least 30 minutes per day average. I did finish Charlie y la Fabrica Chocolate.
3 - No written output.
4 - Vocab - my Memrise course is working super well. The only problem so far has been that some of the words I have entered are a bit dated. This is the result of reading a book written 40+ years ago, I suppose. For example, I have the word acaudalado for wealthy. Some of my WhatsApp friends said this was not a very common word in every day usage. My new book was written much more recently (the first chapter had a reference to a Bluetooth headset so I think this one should be ok)
5 - Grammar - I did finish a chapter in my grammar textbook but this is a bit of a cheat since I was already about halfway through the chapter at the end of last year.
6 - Still no progress on conversation.
7 - Lots of Spanish radio. I really need to finish the movie "Eva". I'll make that a mini-goal for this week.

In summary, I got a total of 801 minutes of Spanish work done this week, not including passive radio listening. That's not far off averaging 2 hours per day! If I can do an hour a day during the week and two hours each weekend day, I'll be pretty pleased.
Unfortunately, this week has not started well since I did not do anything yesterday. I'll try to make up for it tonight!

Cheers!
Paul

[PaleoPaul]

Waded through another chapter of my next book. I'm reading El alquimista by Michael Scott. After Charlie y la fabrica chocolate (CCF) this new book seems a lot harder. I checked the grade levels and Charlie was labeled grades 3-6 while El alquimista is labeled 4-7. That doesn't seem like a big difference but my average reading rate has dropped from 3-3.5 mins per page back down to more than 6 mins/page. I'm hoping it'll just take some getting used to, and I'll speed up like I did on CCF. I was probably reading the last few chapters of CCF a bit more extensively than when I started the book so that's bound to speed things up. It is giving me plenty of words for my Words of the Week (WOW) list. Granted, it is also giving me lots of vocab to look up that I am not putting in my WOW list. Like lots of expressive words to describe a fight between two wizards. May not get to use those much in general conversation. Also, the chapters are a good bit longer than the chapters in CCF - actually I just checked my spreadsheet and the average chapter length is 14 pages vs. less than 7. So my goal of at least a chapter per day may be difficult to maintain.
I also got through another 30 minutes of the movie "Eva". I am definitely watching this movie in a very extensive style. I have Spanish subtitles on and I will stop and back up if I start completely losing the track of the plot. But if I am just missing a few words I'll just let it play. Thirty minutes of movie time took me about 35 minutes to watch. I ended up with only two new words in my WOW list.

[Bex]

Nice log. I too am learning Spanish, and using very similar methods to you with a mix of ITalki, writing, grammar review etc.

I have just discovered I have reached a level where I can read in Spanish (it was too difficult last time I tried) and like you I am really enjoying it at the moment. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on books you've read.

I shall follow you log with interest. Good luck with your Spanish studies.

[PaleoPaul]

I did complete another chapter of El alquimista last night. This one took an hour and half although some of that time was spent shrieking at kids to stop fighting. Still averaging 6+ minutes per page. I also read a page in English (I am reading the Spanish book on my iPad but I also bought the same book in paperback in English) and I read at a rate of just less than 1 minute per page in my L1.

As I have mentioned previously, I am using my reading to populate a Memrise course I created with words I would like to learn. Just in case anyone is interested, here are the words I noted from last night's chapter:

provenir de...
el horario
mellizo
sin embargo...
volver
la mirada
el lodo
vacilar
de cabo a rabo...
a simple vista...

When I look up the meaning of these words in my dictionary I always then look up the English word in the English -> Spanish dictionary to make sure that the Spanish word shows up in the first few definitions. Hopefully this ensures that I am learning the most common Spanish word for that English word. (Not sure if that makes any sense)

I also finished the movie "Eva". I feel a read sense of accomplishment. This is the first Spanish language movie that I have watched all the way through and I followed the plot the whole way. It was a good watch for a Spanish learner because there weren't too many scenes with a lot of rapid fire dialog. Lots of meaningful pauses. It also has the descriptive audio subtitles so I now know how to say "soft music sounds" (suena música suave). The movie itself was good although I did see the main plot twist coming from a mile off. Despite that it was a pretty emotional ending so I do recommend it. After finishing it, I did check the plot description on Wikipedia to make sure I had not missed anything and I hadn't! Now I need to pick something else to watch. I'm leaning toward one of two Netflix series. Either Ingobernable or Estocolmo. I have heard people on the forum recommending both these shows.

[Bex]

This one took an hour and half although some of that time was spent shrieking at kids to stop fighting.

I know that feeling

[PaleoPaul]

Not sure if I am getting used to the style or text was just easier but I read another chapter last night and averaged 4.3 minutes per page. I also didn't spend any of that time shrieking at children so maybe that was part of it too. I did get 8 more items for my Memrise course:

el peldaño
una escalera de tijera
el moretón
arrodillarse
agotado
el hechizo
la espinilla
matar

I've been avoiding words that are a bit too fantasy novel specific but I thought el hechizo might be a good one to know.

I also watched half of the first episode of El Chapo. Not in love with it yet. Might try something else tonight. There are several documentaries on Netflix that look pretty interesting (Humano, Peru tesero Escondido).